E,E, and Little E Stringfellow

Nashville

We visited Nashville 2 different weekend....

The first time Elaina and I went the last few days of her Spring Break just to hang out with family. I just wanted to get away for a few days so Nashville seemed like the perfect spot. We did a weenie roast one night, visited the zoo, and the girls played and played. I only have pics that I snapped from my cell phone since I forgot my camera.

The girls did a lot of tree climbing...My sister has the greatest Magnolia tree that is perfect for tree climbing. I don't know that Elaina has done a whole lot of that but she seemed to love it and was pretty good at it....

Water break - Elaina would move in with Sadie and Celia tomorrow if I let her. She love being with them that much.

I don't have any shots of the Nashville zoo as I did not take my phone in with me. But, I am super impressed with the Nashville Zoo. Let's just say that. We had fun.

Two weekends later all three of us (Erik, Elaina, and I) headed back to Nashville to visit. Plus, we got tickets to see Wicked!!! Erik had not seen it yet. It was my second time - saw it in NYC the first time. I could seriously watch it 100 times more. Saturday, Erik helped Dave with some yard work while Nell and I went with Abby and her girls (and Sloane and Elaina) to a garden festival at a local botanical gardens. They had lots of stuff for the kids to do (craft/puppet show), beautiful flowers and the weather was simply perfect!

They had a puppet show that the kids liked - Elaina wanted to wear my sunglasses throughout the whole show. I think she looks so cute.

Elaina holding Sloane after lunch - her favorite thing to do right now. I'm going to say it again.....HOW SWEET IS SLOANE??? I will stop, but I can't help it!

Later that night, we saw Wicked!! We had a great dinner with Nell and Dave and Abby babysat all the kids - Thanks Abs!

Reverse back a few days - the Thursday before we saw Wicked, Elaina's school did a performance of Wizard of Oz (coincidentally). Elaina wanted to dress like Dorothy the day they saw the play at school. She couldn't dress out of uniform but we did the hair and she wore her shoes that she has had in her closet waiting to grow into for years. Just thought this was a cute pic

And Wicked - no cameras allowed but we got this shot before it started. Our seats were AMAZING!! middle, about 6 rows back!!!

Some pre-show selfies...Just because. I am seriously way to old for selfies but whatever!

Dave wanted in on the selfy action

Loved our weekends in Nashville - love my sisters, bro-in laws and my nieces so very much.

5K

Okay...so I have never really blogged about this before but I have run some 5K's this past year. It's not a huge thing but it is something I finally did and I have to say, they are not that bad. I have not run many, but some. I ran in the Covenant Health 5K this past weekend. I have not run or trained really since January so I am not sure what I was thinking. The idea behind signing up for them is to keep me motivated to get out and walk/run. Well, for this one, I did not do that. I was lazy this winter - I blame all the snow. We have a treadmill but that is beside the point! I almost chickened out the night before because I did not feel prepared (and rightfully so) and not go but I decided that it doesn't matter - just get your butt up and do it!!!! Plus, I committed to my sis-in-law Melanie to do it. She is training to to a Marathon before her 50th b-day. So proud of her!

Anyway, running is not and will never be anything close to my favorite thing. I do it in the name of fitness, not because I love it. This particular race is no joke when it comes to the kinds of people that were there. It was the "Knoxville Marathon" so it's pretty easy to look at all those people and get intimidated by the fitness that exudes from their presence. That was a big reason that I didn't want to go but I overcame that and am glad I did. Because in the end, nobody cares....it's about doing something for yourself, right?

My strategy for this race was to finish, jogging the downhill sections, and walking the uphills. I did better than I thought I would do and jogged more than I thought I could/would. And, turns out I finished this race not much faster then I would have if I would have walked the whole thing. What does that tell you? I don't run much faster than I can walk. So, again...all in the name of getting up and moving. I need to do more of it. This year, I hope to do more 5Ks than I did last year. Do I want to do something more than a 5K? I have been asked that, and no, not really. I am good with this amount for now.

Erik did this one with us. I was so happy about that. I think he liked it and I definitely liked doing it with him. He ran it super fast. He is a freak of nature, as I lovingly call him :). He is naturally a fast runner (from all those years of playing soccer) and has good endurance.

We ran into Neyland Stadium and finished at the 50 yard line. Very cool for a UT Alum and fan ! :)

Things to be proud of:
1) I got up and went
2) I finished
3) No one who was running the half marathon finished before me (that happened to some 5Kers)
4) Erik did it with me
5) I am healthier for it :)

Now, to keep up the moving and not get lazy like I did this summer.....

Pics.... :)

What is the foil thing? People were standing there ready to drape them around us. So,we did but were not sure what the heck they do or mean. I guess it keeps the cool air off your sweaty self? When is Neyland stadium, do as the runner do, I guess.

Marriage Retreat

A few weekends ago we went on our annual trip (we call it the marriage retreat) with the Halls and the Breauxs to the mountain. This was the 6th year we have done this Hard to believe. We love it and look forward to it every year. As usual, it was a LOT of laughing, a LOT of eating, and a LOT of fun. Not too many pics to share except the following:

We did an "Ellen" selfie. Dave tweeted it to see how many re-tweets it would get. Trying to beat Ellen's record. We got none....hmmm, weird? :) Still a cute picture, I think. I don't tweet so I asked Dave to text it to me - how archaic!

This year we did a little something different - the cabin had a fire pit so Saturday night, we roasted weenies/kielbasa/sausages/peppers over the fire. And Smores, of course. It was so much fun and super delicious. The weather was PERFECT for this!

The Halls

The Breaux's

So much fun!!! Loved every minute of it. Can't wait until next year!

Daddy Daughter Date night

Chik fil A has a Daddy Daughter Date night. We found out about it through our friend Brandi so Erik signed up. They had fun...Elaina has been really "into" her daddy these days and that is something that is super special to watch. So, I was glad they had this opportunity to go on a "date." I, obviously, did not go but I snapped these sweet pics of them before they left. Erik said it was fun and Chik Fil A did a nice job of making is nice.

Love these two people so much!

Valentines Day 2014

Valentines Day 2014.....A good day. I got home late from a whirlwind trip to Denver the night before - it was a crazy week with that trip and my sweet grandmothers both passed away that week within 24 hours of each other. So, Valentines Day was good but I was emotionally and physically tired. We took Elaina to Build a Bear as her gift because she had been asking to go for a while. I thought it was a great creative idea but, oh no....everyone in Knoxville had the same idea, lol. It was fun but crowded. We did beat the line a bit because when we left it was out the door into the mall hallway. It wasn't quite that long when we got there.

Still fun - then we went to dinner the only place we could find that didn't have over an hour wait - Chilis. We like Chilis so that worked out well.

Build a Bear pics:

She picked a Hello Kitty doll - shocking, I know. We tried every way we could to talk her into another one but she wasn't having it. Oh well - it's her gift.

Dinner at Chilis was delish! It was a great night spent together with the 2 people I love the most in this world :)

Cheer Camp 2014

Behind......again......*sigh*

Elaina went to cheer camp again for the basketball season. As usual, she loved it and I am glad even though it's not really my thing. But, it's all about life experiences and trying things. They got to perform their cheers/dance at the basketball game. They got to do it twice - both at the girls game and the boys game. I was glad of that because I did not get good pics/video of her during the first game. So, I was glad for the second opportunity.

Her friends Kaitlyn and Kaelyn...she also has another girl in her class who is Kaitilyn. They all four are best buds. But, we have a hard time figuring out which one of them Elaina is talking about.

Her cheer teacher for this camp, Ms. Sydney

Elaina and Kaelyn practicing their moves before the game

Dark picture but it's the best one I got of her on the court

And now for some video. First the cheer it's sideways....sorry.

Now the dance:

Snow Day

We have had quite a winter around here this winter. It's pretty cool. Elaina has loved the snow days and no school. This happened the week before last (just before Valentines Day) but I am just now getting a chance to blog about it.

We have had 2 pretty substantial snows. The other "snow day/days off" were a fluke and I can't believe school was called off, but that is beside the point. The first snow day back in January, I was down with a bad stomach bug (you don't want to hear about that) so didn't get a chance to play in the snow with Elaina - plus it was frigid so she didn't stay out much. The second day, documented below, I was in Denver for a work trip so I missed it too. : (

But, thankfully, I have a super awesome neighbor (who happens to be my cousin) who sent me some sweet pictures while I was in Denver of Elaina playing with her cousin/friend in the snow...I love getting pics of my kiddo while I am away. Thankful for technology.

I hate I missed it but love that Elaina got to play in what I hear was a great snow for playing in and building stuff....

such as this (Erik sent me this pic via phone):

Donned with ND gloves and a hat - nice work Erik and Elaina

Look at all that snow!!! So pretty.

Pics from my cousin of my sweet girl :) So, I love how Picasa does this affect thing on my pictures sometimes. I don't know how but it just does it and I like it :) With my Christmas tree it was sparkling lights...this one is snowfall.